Element of fright in BBC America special contrasts with more-benign holiday fare

“Doctor Who Christmas Special”

When: 9 p.m. Tuesday

Where: BBC America

What’s the use of a “Doctor Who Christmas Special” if you can’t have the children cowering behind couches by the end?

In the case of this year’s special, to be broadcast Christmas Day at 9 p.m. on BBC America, you may never see a familiar holiday icon in the same benign light. The show will be available Wednesday on iTunes.

“Doctor Who,” a British science fiction children’s show, chronicles the travels of a Time Lord who, with a companion or two, travels in a time machine that camouflages itself as a blue British police box. The series started in 1963 and was laid to rest in 1989 and had an unsuccessful TV movie in 1995. It was rebooted to great success in 2005. There have been 11 Doctors over the life of the series, the latest being Matt Smith.

In this year’s Christmas special, the Doctor, heartsick over losing his last companions, lands in the England of 1892, feeling very “bah humbug” about life in general.

“The Doctor is in a Scrooge-like state, being very depressed, like an old grumpy grandpa,” says Jenna-Louise Coleman, 26, who plays Clara, the new companion, “and they meet. Clara takes an interest in him, and so begins a new story.”

“I think there’s nothing like a Christmas special that’s set in snowy Victorian England,” says Caroline Skinner, co-executive producer of the series. “It gives it a real sense of landscape … a slightly larger-than-life feeling, and you’ve got some incredibly scary monsters. There’s something gloriously freaky about taking something that you’re so used to in life … to take it and give it an evil ‘Doctor Who’ twist.

“I think it will really speak to kids, and terrify the socks off them, I hope.”

The villain is Richard E. Grant, better known for roles in “Dracula” and “The Iron Lady.” He plays Doctor Simeon, a man who is out to settle a vendetta.

“Doctor Who’s” appeal has spanned generations.

“ ‘Doctor Who’ is certainly something in the U.K. you kind of grow up with it. It’s part of your DNA,” Skinner says. “It’s just always been there, ‘Doctor Who.’ ”

As for the scares in this year’s Christmas special, Skinner says, “I hope we’re carrying on in that glorious legacy of sending children behind the sofa.”